


Bright Lights

by kaige68



Series: Bright Lights [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Community: 1_million_words, M/M, Pre-Slash, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, alpha!Derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 02:35:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1101360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaige68/pseuds/kaige68
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Stiles touches Derek, the darkness fades just a bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bright Lights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FairyNiamh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyNiamh/gifts).



> Written for [](http://fairyniamh.livejournal.com/profile)[**fairyniamh**](http://fairyniamh.livejournal.com/) for the [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Swap of Joy. The request was simply Derek/Stiles. I hope you enjoy! It was a thrill to write for you, and a propos to you, this is a fandom I have never written in.  
>  **Beta:** Superfast emergency beta by the effervescent [](http://haldoor.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://haldoor.livejournal.com/)**haldoor**! Thank you so much, hon. All remaining errors, extra commas, missing commas, or lack of possessive markers are my own doing.  
>  **Warning:** Contains spoilers for Season 3

“Stiles!”

His name being yelled cut through the babble in his head, and Stiles turned sharply, catching sight of Derek standing nearby looking... not just a little bit pissed.

“What are you doing here?” Here being a forest well south of Beacon Hills. It looked a lot like the preserve, felt like it too. Unless you had a dark spot in your heart like Stiles that pulled you toward the Nemeton. Maybe pull was the wrong word, but he could feel, in his chest, which direction was home. Not like he had to go there and was feeling a pressure to move in that direction. More like it was Mecca, and he felt the need to turn toward it-

“STILES?!”

Right. Derek. Just get right to it. “Your uncle lost his shit when he realized that Scott had become a True Alpha. Threw a tantrum, destroyed what was left of your loft.”

Derek sighed, arms crossed over his chest. “Did anyone get hurt?”

“No, at least not that we know of. Isaac had nannycamed the place, in case you came back. We watched it the next day.”

“Don’t let him find out you did that, and take it down before he finds it.”

“Done and done.” Stiles interjected. “We aren’t idiots.”

Derek looked at him as though he were debating it. “What else did he do? He hasn’t challenged Scott yet, has he?”

“No, that’s why I came to find you. To see what you think he’ll do next and why he was so pissed about Scott becoming an Alpha.”

“He thinks,” Derek let his arms drop as he looked beyond Stiles while he thought for a moment. “Peter thinks that I’m not an Alpha anymore and that he took it away from me when he convinced me to give everything I had to help Cora.”

“And if he took it away from you it would make him an Alpha again.” Stiles hands went up in the air emphasizing that the point should have been obvious to him earlier. And then another thought. “But he didn’t take it away from you?”

“Not completely, it took a while to get all of the power back. I let Peter think it was done though. It helped push Scott, and let me get Cora away. I knew, from the way Peter was trying to convince me and not convince me at the same time that he was planning something.”

“Of course he’s planning something! Even when he’s dead he’s got an evil plan to take over Beacon Hills.” Stiles watched the corner of Derek’s mouth twitch up, as though he wanted to smile, before he controlled himself again.

“So, you’re still Alpha of the pack then, right?” Stiles hands twitched slightly, unsure of what to do now that he’d come to the strange woods and found Derek.

“You came all this way to tell me about Peter, what do you think?” And now there was a completely in control self-satisfied smirk on Derek’s face.

“But I’m not part of the pack. What difference-”

“Stiles! You came, what, 200 miles out of your way to find me and tell me that my uncle lost his temper and tossed my apartment? You came to ask for advice and see if I’d come back. Do you honestly think that if I was anything less than an Alpha, or you weren’t part of the pack, that you would be here right now?”

“I…” Stiles stuttered, mentally flailing for an answer. “Uh…”

“What did Peter do after that? What else is going on?” Derek stepped closer, leaned against the tree nearest Stiles.

“He’s become Crazy Controlling Boyfriend.” Stiles felt his own heart rate pick up, certain the Derek could hear it, afraid that he’d think Stiles was not telling the truth. But it was agitating, this thing with Peter and Scott. “He doesn’t let Scott out of his sight if he can help it. And between Scott’s dad, and Scott watching Isaac with Allison, it’s only helping Peter. Scott is completely freaked out that he isn’t doing things the way they should be done, and-”

“And Peter is spoon feeding it to him like baby food.”

“Yes.” Stiles felt his hope sink in a little. “It’s just that I feel this.” He gestured to his own heart. “The dark waiting there, and I know he does too.” Stiles speech went faster, his heart rate speeding up, building. “I know Scott worries about it, and now that he’s an Alpha he’ll feel even more responsible for people than before and-”

And Stiles threw himself against Derek’s chest and hugged the man. Hugged him tightly, clinging to him as if he knew that even if Derek couldn’t fix it, he could understand Stiles’ concerns.

Then Derek’s arms were hugging Stiles back. The darkness was pushed, tamped down a little. There was real comfort in being held by Derek. There was light seeping in from Derek. Moving into the darkness in Stiles’ chest.

“Can I let go now, or are you going to cry?” Derek patted at Stiles’ back but left the words light. Well, light for Derek.

Stiles pulled back, shaking his head. “You’re a dick.” There was no heat in the words and Stiles watched as the Alpha nodded his agreement.

“C’mon.” Derek gestured and started walking through the woods, assuming Stiles would follow along. “Cora isn’t ready to go back. She’s getting stronger, we’re stronger together, but what she lived after the fire… it jaded her, but didn’t build her up.” He turned and met Stiles’ eyes. “I can’t leave her…”

“But you can’t bring her back to Beacon Hills either.” He shrugged. “I get it. It’s a pack thing.”

“You’re stronger with it too. Maybe it’s not the same way it is with me and Cora, but you’re stronger when you’re fighting with and for your family. Your friends. The people you care about.”

“Strength from desperation? Great. The more desperate I get the better I do. That’s just what I wanted to hear.”

They both fell silent as they continued walking. Stiles became lost in his own head again, aware that he was desperate to save Scott, desperate to keep whatever Peter was planning from seeing fruition, desperate all around.

Any light from the hug was gone, and desperate didn’t feel strong to Stiles. It felt weak, it felt dark. Darker.

There was a hand suddenly clutching at Stiles’ arm. He hadn’t tripped, he wasn’t going in the wrong direction, but Derek was wrapping his big hand around Stiles’ bicep. Then some of the light came back. Again, it didn’t take away the darkness, but it became… almost a layer between Stiles’ heart, and the bubble of shadow in it.

“Do you know you’re doing that?” He stopped and questioned Derek, loudly.

“Yeah.” Derek just tugged him along.

“How…” This time Stiles did trip.

Derek kept him upright. “It’s just something that we do.”

“Werewolves bring light?”

“No.” Derek let go and it might have been a trick of the dappled sun, but to Stiles it looked like he was blushing. “You and I.”

“Both of us?”

“Yeah.”

“I bring you light?”

“Yes, Stiles. Can we drop it now?” There was a small clearing ahead, with a little shingle sided cabin. Derek made a beeline for it.

Stiles stopped, staring incredulously. “Since the Nemeton?”

“Since the pool, and the Sheriff's office, and… since I met you, Stiles.” Derek turned his back to the cabin as he explained. “Since the first time I was within ten feet of you, Stiles. It just is, okay? Come on, we need to figure out Pet-”

“How come I didn’t know until today?”

Derek sighed, and Stiles watched the man’s entire body sag with it. “Because you have always been bright. It would be like turning on a light bulb in a parking lot on a sunny afternoon. You wouldn’t notice unless you had been looking for it and you were never looking for it, Stiles.”

And that was weird even in Stiles’ brain. Derek wasn’t the only one who had loss in his life. It didn’t make a lot of sense. “Wait, I’ve watched death. I’ve had some serious shit happen in my life. If it was always there then-”

“You chose the light, you chose to be bright. To help your father, to help Scott, and yourself. You are-”

“The source of all light?” Stiles quipped with the thought that Derek should probably patent that double-brow-lift-stare.

“That’s not what I said.” He seemed to think for a moment, then, “Maybe you’ve had dark moments before, but you chose not to let it consume you.”

“It consumes me now?”

“Now, you don’t have a choice, or you chose the darkness when you let yourself die in sacrifice.” Derek looked him in the eye, and Stiles couldn’t say why, but he had gotten the impression that Derek respected that Stiles had _chosen_ to be bright when he’d had the choice, rather than think he was a weak little human.

“So now that I have the darkness, I can tell that you bring me light?”

Derek nodded slightly in response.

“But only you?” Stiles continued asking.

Derek nodded again.

“What does it mean?”

The werewolf crossed his arms and leaned back against a tree. “It means we… bring each other light.”

“Yeah, I got that part, when I realized that we do that, it was kind of obvious. I mean _why_ do we do that, what does _that_ mean? Is it some big deal that I haven’t found in any of the research?”

“It doesn’t have to mean anything, Stiles.” Derek’s answer was flat, and non-committal.

“Everything means something. If I’ve learned anything since Scott was bitten it’s that everything means something!” Stiles paused, hoping that Derek would chime in with some further information. When he just stood there staring at Stiles like a stone faced… stone, Stiles pressed further. “Have you ever heard of this happening before?’’

“Yes.” Again the answer was flat and less than enlightening. When Stiles drew a breath to rant further, Derek cut him off. “My mother, she said that my father made her heart lighter. Not in a true love kind of way, but like the things that weighed heavy on her, the dark that was inside her for the things she had to do in her life, having him with her made that darkness lighter.”

“So, what? Like we’re supposed to be _together_ together? Like a couple? Always and forever? Matching tattoos? Rings and rice?”

“And you wonder why I didn’t say anything before?” Derek pushed forward from the tree. “No rings, no tattoos. Just that we make each other’s … hearts… lighter.”

“Yeah, there really is no way to say that and not sound like a supermarket romance novel.” Stiles laughed nervously. “It is something, though, isn’t it? You said it doesn’t have to be, but it is. And you think it should be, like it was with your parents.”

“I don’t expect anything.”

And that was the jist, or at least it was in Stiles’ head, of why Derek was a far better Alpha than Peter would ever hope to be. It was why Scott aspired to do some things the way Derek did them. Because despite how things might look like he was in it for himself, Derek was always in it for the rest of the pack. Even when the pack had just been him and a reluctant Scott. And now, with this light thing, that had bonded his parents, when Derek found it for himself he wasn’t pushing Stiles.

“Wait a minute! You knew about this? Like back when you smacked my head into my steering wheel, you knew about the light.”

Derek just stared.

“You knew that it was a just us thing and you did nothing about it.”

“What should I have done about it, Stiles? You’re not legal, and your father’s the sheriff.”

“Well, not _that_! Maybe hold hands, maybe be _nice_ , maybe not threaten the life of the guy that brings light into your heart. _Maybe_ not sleep with crazy dark druid chick bent on world domination!”

Derek stared some more.

“Technically, you were cheating on me.” Stiles waved his hands in the air to stop Derek’s rebuttal. “You knew about this. You knew that I have the power of light for you, and you still went to bed with that… With Jennifer. Jennifer of the darkness.” Stiles stepped closer to Derek’s personal space with a smirk on his face. “You cheated on me.”

“You’re out of your mind.”

Stiles reached out his hand, taking hold of Derek’s, weaving their fingers together. “I light up your life, SourPuss.” And he tugged Derek’s hand, moving them toward the cabin to discuss what they were going to do about Peter. He felt the light circle around the darkness and smiled.


End file.
